Here you find the blogs and the photo essays by Kristian Bertel. On this page of the website you can see the photo essays or photographic essays by the photographer. See a set or series of photographs that are intended to tell a story from India. His photo essays and photo stories range from purely photographic works to photographs with captions or small notes to full text essays with a few or many accompanying photographs. All the blog posts and the photo essays you can see on this website can be seen sequential in nature, intended to be viewed in a particular order, which may be viewed one at a time or all at once.
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PHOTO ASSIGNMENT ON NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

PHOTO ASSIGNMENT ON NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

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India as a travel destination

The photographer was prepared that India would be an explosion of colors, smells and noises. Each travel guide draws a clear picture of the colorful, different India and also reports show intense images of the subcontinent. The temperatures and humidity of the rainy season would be very high. When he landed in the middle of the night in Delhi, he felt well prepared for his journey in India. Nevertheless, it seemed to him as if he would run against a sultry wall as soon as he stepped out of the airport building. The driver of the photographer's prepaid cab drove through the night along with camels and elephants and almost no road light and made his presence be heard through loud, loud horns. The photographer's India adventure had begun and he was right in the middle. Horns became the most striking sound of the trip. No matter whether bus, car or rickshaw, every occasion will be honored. Even the apparent absence of other road users is not a reason not to honk. It is simply meant to be perceived and not to perish in the raging traffic. The traffic is breathtaking. On four-lane roads, at least seven vehicles travel side by side, overtaking maneuvers are adventurous and most of the vehicles are overhauled. As a rickshaw driver told him, there are only three things to be done in India: Good brakes, a good horn and, above all, good luck. The fact is that the traffic fascinated him almost every day. Cabs are so cheap that you can do without public transport. Sometimes you have to use it, along with hundreds or thousands of other passengers. The ride with the suburban train in the rushhour is an experience.

Between deserts and fertile plains

In the north-west of India a Rajasthan state opens its doors, which lack neither magic nor historical facets. The Indian state has a long and moving history, which finds its beginnings after the results of recent archaeological excavations long before the high-culture in the Indus valley. Even today it is possible to take a look at the history and the remaining traces. Monuments of the ancient cultures provide a breathtaking view of the history and show the diversity and richness of Rajasthan's culture today. However, it is no longer only the historical facets which characterize Rajasthan today as hardly any other federal state. The period in which the state was governed by the Rajputs is still evident today in the remaining reminiscences. Above all, at a later period, the state was repeatedly visited by various conflicts. While Rajasthan was ruled by the Rajputs, there were always wars and clashes in which they were facing the Turks, as well as the Sultans from Delhi. The moguls also regularly fought clashes with the Rajputs. It was not until later that they settled down in North India. The British invasion finally shaped the years of the 18th century. At first Rajasthan succeeded in asserting himself against colonial power. It was only at the beginning of the 19th century that they finally had to give up their rule. In the west of Rajasthan extends an area that is largely sterile and dry. A total of a third of the total area is today part of the Thar desert. On the other hand, we find shallow slopes in the south-west, which, however, suffer much less from the drought. These fields are considered more fruitful. While in the west on average only 100 mm of precipitation fall, the precipitation quantity in the southeast is on average 650 mm. Most rain falls during the monsoon. Rajasthan is a region for true adventurers. Especially those, who decide for adventure trips, are right here. A highlight is certainly a tour of the Aravallis. It is one of the oldest mountainous areas in the country. The Maharajah can still be traced today. The best known areas of Rajasthan can be explored in the framework of horse and camel safari. A highlight, however, are surely also the palace tours, which to this day are really something magnificent. Numerous old palaces have been converted into hotels in recent years and offer a breathtaking ambience for individual travel.

Caste system is hard to be understood

The social division with castes in India is hard to be understood, let alone accepted for the traveler and tourist. Nevertheless, the caste system in India is still a visible and much-discussed reality. Almost all of the poor are either part of the 'Scheduled castes' or the untouchables Dalits as well as the Adevasi Indigenous peoples. Traditionally many professions are denied them, often they live outside the village communities. Tourists can try to convince local people of the senselessness and reprobation of this centuries-old system. However, it is strange to many Indians or simply rude to do. The fate of the lowest caste, which accounts for nearly twenty percent of all Indians, has dramatically improved for the better over recent decades. Dalit is mostly used to describe communities that have been subjected to untouchability and the Dalits have had lowest social status in the traditional Hindu social structure. In the past, they were believed to be so impure that caste Hindus considered their presence to be polluting. The impure status was related to their historic hereditary occupations that Hindus considered to be "polluting" or debased, such as working with leather, working with night soil and other dirty work. These untouchables are also called Dalit and formerly Harijan in the traditional Indian society for any member of a wide range of low-caste Hindu groups and any person outside the caste system.

Photography blog from India

Many of the written blogs provided by the photographer provides commentary on a particular subject in India, others function as more personal online photo diaries. On the blog posts you can see a that a typical blog by the photographer combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic of photography. The photographer has on some of the photo blogs made the ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format which is an important contribution to the popularity of many picture blogs online. Most of the blogs are primarily with a focus on the photos, although some are textual of a specific theme. The structure of blogs by the photographer is focusing on the story behind the pictures, so the community of all blogs known as the blogosphere can get the background story of images from India. Since all blogs are online by definition, also when blogging about India, they may be seen as interconnected and socially networked, through blogrolls, comments, linkbacks which are refbacks, trackbacks or pingbacks and backlinks. Discussions of the photographer's photos in the blogosphere are occasionally used by the media as a gauge of public opinion on various issues. Because new, untapped communities of bloggers including travel bloggers and NGO's and their readers can emerge in the space of a few years, many people's attention to life in India in the blogosphere including the photos from India.

Online photography stories

Online photography is content that is delivered on the Internet. Blogs can be delivered more quickly through this method of writting as well as accessed more easily. The internet era has transformed the understanding of blogging. Because the internet allows communication which is not only instantaneous, but also multi-directional, it has blurred the boundaries of which stories a photographer can tell. A common type of internet journalism is called blogging, which is a service of persistently written articles uploaded and written by one or more individuals. Millions of people in countries such as India has taken up blogging. Many blogs have rather small audiences and some blogs are read by millions each month. Photography websites like this one of a travel photographer have become an important source of cultural understanding and for disseminating links to heritage and things in India. Delivering a blogroll whose headlines you as a reader can find interesting and where one can discover stories about poverty and street photography as it happened through the eyes of a photographer. By reading the blog posts above one can learn more about topics that are important about traveling to India.